A temporary home and repository for television and film critic Daniel Fienberg, formerly of HitFix.com and Zap2it.com and one half of The Firewall & Iceberg Podcast.

Monday, March 20, 2006

Moviewatch: "Game Six" and "The Benchwarmers"

"Game Six"Director: Michael HoffmanFien Print Rating (Out of 100): 70In a Nutshell:It's possible that you don't need to be a writer and a Red Sox fan to be captivated by "Game 6," but I suspect that it helps. On one level, "Game Six" is a bit of an intellectual thriller, with Michael Keaton's frustrated playwright on an inexorable path of destruction heading toward two parallel potential tragedies, one involving Bill Buckner -- if you don't know what the title of the movie refers to, don't bother going to see it -- and the other involving Robert Downey Jr. as an evil film critic. Unfortunately for impatient viewers, very little happens in Don DeLillo's script. Characters meet and bounce ideas off of each other about life and art and fate and happiness. Then they depart. The dialogue often achieves its elegant and humorous aspirations and the performances are all solid, but the final payoff will probably be a dud for anybody who didn't get shivers watching highlights of the Red Sox and Mets battling in the 1986 World Series. For me, the ending was a beautiful and logical release. I'm a small audience, though.

AND ALSO:

"The Benchwarmers"Director: Dennis DuganFien Print Rating (Out of 100): 14In a Nutshell: Imagine the comedic possibilities of a mythical movie starring Jim Carrey, a young Tom Hanks, Bill Murray and Buster Keaton. Now imagine the exact opposite, the inversion of that movie. It would probably star Rob Schneider, David Spade, Jon Lovitz and that annoying guy from "Napoleon Dynamite," wouldn't it? Exactly. Now how about if I told you that second movie could come from the screenwriters of "Grandma's Boy" and that it would be directed by the guy who did "Big Daddy." Now imagine that the movie sort of has a plot involving three grown men who beat lots of little kids at baseball (but don't add *any* extra details to flesh out the scenario or the characters). Whatever you're thinking of, no matter how unfunny it seems in your head, it has more laughs in it than "The Benchwarmers."

Check Zap2it.com on Friday, March 24 for my review of "Game Six." You're gonna have to wait until April 7 for a full review of "The Benchwarmers. Sorry.